56 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan 28. 



CBORCB W. YORK, • Editor. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 lis Micblgaa St.. - CHICAGO, IZ,/,. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Bent Free. 

 [Bntered at the PoBtrOtBce at Cbicano as Second-Class Mall-Matter. 



VoLinVIl CHICAeO, ILL, JAN. 28, 1897, No. 4, 



Editorial Con)n)cr)t^^ 



The ^^isconsin Convention meets at Madison 

 (the State capital), Feb. 3 aud 4— next Wednesday and Thurs- 

 day. It is now our intention to be present, and we hope to 

 meet and greet a goodly number of our readers in that great 

 honey-producing State. We trust it maybe the largest and 

 best bee-convention ever held in Wisconsin. Why not be there 

 and help to make it so ? 



*-•-*■ 



Xhey Would Exclude the Bees.— There is an 

 agitation in the city of Riverside, Calif., to exclude the bees 

 from that city. The point made by thosewho would drive the 

 bee-keepers away is the old one, of bees injuring fruit. Prof. 

 Cook had the privilege of speaking in that city recently to a 

 large audience in one of the Farmers' Institutes. He pointed 

 out as best he could the facts in the case. Here may be 

 another case for the Union to put in its good work, and teach 

 some people a lesson. 



Petition Agfainst Adulteration.— Mr. C. P. 



Dadant, in his article on page 50, refers to a petition against 

 honey-adulteration, sent from bee-keepers to Congress in 

 1878-79. This matter was in the hands of Mr. Chas. 

 Dadant (C. P.'s father), who received all the petitions from the 

 bee-keepers of the country, and forwarded them to Wash- 

 ington. But the commendable work begun then seems not to 

 have done any practical good, for we believe nothing more 

 was ever heard of the petitions. But it was a start, and we 

 believe if a strong national organization of bee-keepers 

 were to undertake such an important thing, and follow it up 

 closely all the way through, something would result there- 

 from. As Mr. Dadant says, bee-keepers need to get together, 

 and push as one man for their rights. 



The Proposed Anialsfaiuation of the National 

 Union and the North American will be decided this month, 

 at least for the present. If it is defeated, we do not see that 

 the National Union will have gained anything — in fact, it will 

 prove a real loss to It, we believe. 



Prof. Cook writes quite an article on this subject (see 

 page 51), but we fail to see that he gives any good reason why 

 amalgamation should not take place now ; but, on the con- 

 trary, he says he Is quite willing to work heartily for the suc- 

 cess of the new Union if amalgamation carries. He also sug- 

 gests that It would be well for the National Union to so 

 amend Its Constitution as to take up the subject of honey- 



aduleratlon — one of the very important things that the New 

 Constitution especially contemplates, though the General 

 Manager, in his 12th Report, endeavors to discourage the 

 undertaking of this matter, by saying it will take millions of 

 money to fight the numberless cases that would arise all over 

 the country. But we all know that we do not have to fight 

 beyond the extent of the Union's treasury or financial ability — 

 simply do what we can with the funds collected, to put down 

 adulteration. That's all. And that is all the Union has ever 

 done in the past— simply kept safely within its income in de- 

 fending the pursuit of bee-keeping. 



Prof. Cook, in common with some other enthusiastic Cali- 

 fornians, entertains the wrong idea that the Union's members 

 in that State are about " the whole thing," for he says : "The 

 fact, too, that the majority of those in the Union are citizens 

 of California." But he'll find it a hard matter to convince 

 Eastern bee-keepers that only 40 members is a major portion 

 of 280. When we went to school we were taught that 40 is 

 as nearly as can he one-seventh of 280. To say the least, it 

 doesn't look well for the "tail" to try to wag the "dog," 

 even if it could, and tho the " tail " be a very useful and neces- 

 sary part of the "dog." 



While on this subject, we wish to speak of a matter sug- 

 gested in the first paragraph of Mr. Theilmann's article on 

 page .52. Now we do not think that there is a single member 

 of the National Union who for one moment ever entertained 

 the idea that the General Manager's brief annual financial 

 statements were incorrect or not exactly right. And yet it 

 would seem only fair that an itemized statement be given In 

 each annual report sent to the members. Of course, it would 

 be unnecessary to publish it in the bee-papers, but there is no 

 question that the members would be Interested in knowing 

 just how much of the funds it was necessary to spend on each 

 particular case in order to win it. We know the General 

 Manager would be glad to do this, as it would be impossible 

 for all to see his books for themselves, and thus learn it, as 

 would be their right, if they so desired. 



The members of the National Union have a perfect right 

 to be proud of the work which that organization has accom- 

 pllsht in the dozen years of its existence, but there remains 

 much more to be done in other directions that will prove of 

 untold value to bee-keepers all over this country. As Mr. 

 C. P. Dadant well says on page 50 — we must "unite our 

 efforts and construct a Bee-Keepers' Union fifty times as 

 strong and as far reaching as what we have at present." This 

 we believe can only be done by amalgamating the two existing 

 national organizations, and then all go to work to "crush the 

 hydra of honey-adulteration" — the bee-keeper's greatest foe 

 in the pathway to success. 



That Honey- Jumble Recipe.— From Glean- 

 ings we learn that the good women-folks that seem to " en- 

 dure" so well living with Dr. Miller, have tried the honey- 

 jumble recipe that we publisht recently, and Editor Root, after 

 sampling them, says they are "as good as the best jumbles 

 every made." (We'll have to take his word for it until we 

 can afford to get a round-trip ticket to Dr. Miller's just for the 

 purpose of eating jumbles with him ! But we see the Doctor 

 wrote Editor Root that he had sent him " the last of the 

 batch," so that ends it !) 



The following we take from the same editorial In Glean- 

 ings : 



It seems there was a slight mistake, probably, in the 

 recipe. One of the ingredients was carbonate of soda 4 

 ounces, and it appears that it should have been 4 ponnds. The 

 whole recipe, then, with this correction, will read as follows : 



"Flour, IStB pounds; lard, 10 pounds ; honey, 12 gal- 

 lons ; molasses, 3 gallons ; carbonate of soda, 4 pounds; salt, 

 I pound; water, 3 gallons; extract of vanilla, 1 pint." 



Of course, the proportions in this recipe are too large for 



